The present disclosure relates generally to a document management system and method.
Many documents have become a mixture, or a composite, of differentially formatted parts. Composite documents may be presented to a user by specialized software as one editable, browsable, approvable, playable document. Different parts are combined together through various serialization mechanisms, e.g. java jar-archive, HP dlf, etc. One example of a composite document is a document-based proposal, including product jpeg-images, a marketing way-clip, a ppt-presentation and an xsl-spreadsheet with financial details.
In many instances, multiple workflow participants contribute to different parts of composite documents with different access levels. It may also be desirable or necessary to export a composite document outside of a secured environment and then, after the document is updated, re-import the document back into the secured environment. When publicly-posted composite documents are distributed over non-secure channels, documents may inadvertently become lost (i.e., never delivered to the intended recipient) or be delivered in non-authentic form.